Supporting the Development of Computational Thinking: A Robotic Platform Controlled by Smartphone

摘要

The difficulty of students in learning logic and programming languages leads the research of technological solutions to assist in the teaching-learning process. Among these solutions, two common approaches are robotics and graphical-based programming languages. Researches indicate that these tools can aid learners to think systematically and develop computational thinking. Therefore, this work proposes the Coffee Platform, which is composed by a Web-based block programming environment and a smartphone as a robot controller unit. This platform can be expanded to work with various mobile devices and robotic kits. The Coffee Platform was applied in a classroom with the aim of assessing the tool and its effects over students' motivation. Results indicate that the proposed solution can serve as a stimulus for students and assist in understanding programming concepts.